Author Archives: Jimmy Burns

  I cannot remember when I last watched FC Barcelona play and enjoyed it. But I’ve taken to looking for old DVD’s of Ronaldinho, of Messi, of Iniesta and Xavi and Pujol, of Valdes, and Guardiola, and Johan Cruyff, in an exercise of nostalgia for those halcyon days when a team came together under a manager and a president, struck a harmonious note, and gave us pure magic-the kind of football you would remember for the rest of your life. Nostalgia is a risky business for it draws us into …

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  Cuando dos grupos de hombres jóvenes y de mediana edad, manejando diversos instrumentos de violencia desde cuchillos hasta  barras de hierro  se enfrentan  de tal modo que dejan a un muerto  y decenas de heridos, y todo porque su lealtades se dividen entre equipos de fútbol-hay algo muy mal, no sólo en el juego, sino todo el contexto en el que se juega este deporte. Las circunstancias de la muerte de un hincha del  Deportivo La Coruña a manos de una turba Atléticista fue particularmente horrible: la victima fue …

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  When two large group of young and middle-aged men, wielding various instruments of violence from knives and knuckle dusters to iron bars first charge ,  then beat each other – to death in one case-and leave  many others injured-severely in several cases-, all because they happen to support different  football teams-there is something badly wrong not just in the game but the whole context in which it’s played. Judging by reports that have emerged, the  circumstances of the death of a Deportivo La Coruña fan at the hands of …

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  Some days ago I was besieged by angry comments from Catalan friends and their English sympathisers when I suggested that FC Barcelona currently mirrored the disfunctionality of Catalan politics. Having just come back from one of my regular visits to Catalunya, let me rest my case. Barca is a team playing without joy, rhythm or system. Neymar has a growing tendency to frown and protest, like a spoilt school kid, lacking the grace and sheer toothy big smile fun that Ronaldino gave us in his heyday. Suarez beats his …

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  When people ask me-the son of a Scot father and a Spanish mother who was born in Madrid-why I am a cule, I tell them because I became one in the mid 1970’s thank to Johan Cruyff and have remained one ever since because I love watching beautiful football and I count many Catalans among my Spanish friends. I will be looking forward to this Saturday’s Clasico with the hope that the Barca that Luis Enrique is crafting will demonstrate that it has recovered some of  the poetry in …

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